大般涅槃經集解 23.38

23.38

Sengliang comments: Next is the reply to the question about the ferryman. In the bitter sea of saṃsāra, all people seek deliverance, and the sūtra can exhort people to cultivate and learn. For the Buddha to deliver from saṃsāra, there is no other way: he boards the great nirvāṇa to rescue suffering beings. The two parables of the wind below—the first illustrates swift deliverance and the second illustrates self-rejoicing—both exhort and praise. Baoliang comments: The previous four questions clarified benefits within the cause; this clarifies benefits within the fruit. There are three meanings: this first one first clarifies that all Buddhas, having attained deliverance, return to ferry sentient beings across. Zhixiu says: Answering the eighteenth question. The three questions below all clarify that the power of the sūtra can serve as conditions for external beings. There are two kinds of ships: first, serving as an object of focus for sentient beings, precisely because they believe in the teaching and can then generate goodness; second, the wondrous Buddha abides in the stage of the fruit and returns to deliver from saṃsāra.